These next two books are a little dated (Extreme Alpinism was printed in 1999 and Self-Rescue in 1997), but are still worthy reads. Twight’s book inspired me to examine my climbing tactics and strategies. Fasulo’s book features the great illustrations of Mike Clelland – I look at the pictures more than read it!!

Extreme Alpinism: Climbing Light, Fast, and High, by Mark Twight.Self-Rescue, by David Fasulo.

On 12-14 July I climbed Banner Peak with Matt and John Wylie. Here’s Matt’s report of the trip with my photos. Cheers! Chris

John and Matt Wylie at Lake Ediza, with Mt. Ritter and Banner Peak waiting in the background.

This summer me and my dad decided to climb up Mt Ritter and Banner Peak. Several summers ago we climbed Mt Langley with one of the guides from SMC, Chris Simmons and had a great trip. We met our guide in Bishop. He was the same person we went up Mt. Langley with, so we were happy. We hiked in the 6 miles to Ediza Lake on Day 1. Most of the trip was uphill and steep, so we were tired. But our spirit’s were bounced back up with Chris’s great food.

Matt Wylie and Chris Simmons on the summit of Banner Peak

We had a late wakeup the next morning (2:30am!) and we were on the trail by 3:00. We had hiked about a mile before we took a break to get our crampons on. We were on the first snowfield by sunrise. From there it was a long journey up a snowfield, a talus field, and another snowfield. About halfway through the second snowfield Dad decided to turn back. Me and Chris got up to the col. And decided to climb Banner and estimate how long Ritter would take. We got up to the top of Banner about an hour and a half later. It was a hard journey through a talus field and some class 3 rock climbing. After searching frantically for the register I decided I didn’t have enough energy to summit the the higher Ritter, and there was also a storm coming.

Beating the rain back to camp after summitting Banner Peak.

We met up with Dad and got to camp early afternoon, just as it started to rain. The next day we packed up and hiked out. What a fun trip. Thank You Sierra Mountain Center!